10 Maxims of Successful Scaling Up Clients

As the owner of a growing business, you know how hard it is to consistently scale. You face the external challenges of expensive marketing, erratic revenue streams, inflation, and capacity constraints.

Internally, you wonder why even your most senior and highly compensated employees don’t “get it” and “want it” as badly as you do. A “B Player mentality,” even among those who consider themselves A Players, is the real culprit here. It’s more insidious than most business owners will openly admit.

This combination of factors can lead even the most seasoned business owners with sound profits to wonder if they have the right stuff to take a business to the next level of growth and abundance. If your business is facing emerging financial pressures, this feeling gets compounded.

To the outside world, the business looks great, but only you, as the owner and CEO, feel the weight of all these pressures and strains. You know somehow the business could be more fun to operate and could be even bigger and better. But how?

Even the most successful businesses have millions of dollars of potential value trapped inside of them. It is an injustice to leave this value untapped inside your business only to have it exploited by the next owner. However, with the right growth platform, process, and people, you can unlock it so you can enjoy the abundance your business has to offer both now and when you are ready to sell it for maximum value.

The great news is with the right plans and disciplines, this is all possible! As the CEO and owner of one of the top Scaling Up Certified Coaching practices in the world, I recently reflected on the attributes of our absolutely best clients over the years—the clients who spectacularly scaled their businesses, made them run with the precision of a Swiss watch, and had tremendous strategic valuations, even in the face of adversity.

These exceptional clients consistently demonstrate key qualities and adhere to fundamental maxims that set them apart, drive their success, reduce their stress, and enable them to enjoy the ride.

They Take Ownership

Don’t blame anyone or anything else in the face of challenges. Jim Collins describes this mindset as the Stockdale Paradox in Good to Great:

Every good-to-great company faced significant adversity along the way to greatness…In every case, the management team responded with a powerful psychological duality. On the one hand, they stoically accepted the brutal facts of reality. On the other hand, they maintained an unwavering faith in the endgame and a commitment to prevail as a great company despite the brutal facts.

Likewise, our best CEOs and teams confidently select the best business growth and value creation platform in Scaling Up and never blame the tool when the going gets tough. Instead, they look inward to their own People, Strategy, and Execution to drive the Growth, Profits, Cash, and Valuation they desire. This ownership mindset ensures they stay resilient and proactive in overcoming obstacles and achieving their goals.

The CEO Knows What They Want and Doesn’t Placate Their Team

This maxim is tied to the above. In most Scaling Up engagements, there is either a point:

1. Where the going gets tougher, or
2. Where things are running smoothly and the operating rhythm of Scaling Up may appear a little repetitive.

In both cases the key is to consistently drive forward. Just like in sports, the three main ingredients to winning are People (talent), a winning Strategy, and flawless Execution.

Here is what happens all too often, and I’ll credit our colleague Dale Robinette with this one: We find there are 1–3 people on the executive team who are holding the company back. It sounds like: “We don’t have time for this, we have to get back to work.” If you unpack that, they’re saying, “We want to execute the old plan.” Meanwhile, the CEO can’t figure out why they can’t move the company forward. Keep in mind, the Lilliputians will tear you down!

Our best CEOs carry the mantra, “We are committed to Scaling Up.” When your team begins to whine because of healthy stress, instead of making practice easier, audit their strategic plans and results and challenge them to be better.

As the great Jim Rohn said, “Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better. Don’t wish for less problems, wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenge, wish for more wisdom.”

They Are Not B Player Apologists

Aligned with the above maxim, successful Scaling Up clients understand that you simply cannot win with non-A Players. The C Players on your team should be obvious upgrade opportunities.

Our best leaders of Scaling Up firms do not tolerate basic B-level performance and upgrade these team members through coaching, role changes, or personnel changes. Many clients overestimate the talent of their teams when they start with us. “What got you here won’t get you there.”

Unfortunately, B Players can kill Scaling Up engagements and stall your momentum because they lack both strategic thinking and execution skills. They cannot conceive winning strategies, nor can they execute them. We have found that cultures with B Player mindsets are the silent killers of organizations, as the mediocrity dries up profits and drives A Players away.

By maintaining a team of A Players, our best clients ensure they have the talent necessary to drive success and achieve their ambitious goals.

They Achieve 2x Every Industry Average

As financial guru Greg Crabtree states: “If you only want to be average, obsess over industry averages.” Our maxim with clients is to obliterate industry averages by at least 2x.

For example, if the industry standard turnover is 18%, then achieve at least 9%. This philosophy is in line with Scaling Up’s X-Factor, the 10x to 100x underlying competitive advantage.

Embrace and then vigorously attack those status quo “just the way it is in our industry” metrics that your competitors tolerate. Ultimately, like in golf, we are playing against ourselves and should always relentlessly improve our numbers.

They Are Coachable

Just like professional athletes, successful Scaling Up clients have the humility to do the hard work of practicing until they can execute flawlessly. This is one of the most important maxims of success.

Along with the following three maxims, this forms the definition of an A Player by the acronym CART (Coachability, Accountability, Results, Tenacity). Our best CEOs and their teams are highly coachable. Like elite athletes approaching a lesson or practice, they are wide open to ideas, feedback, and any edge to get better.

Beware of “know-it-alls” on your team—many are pretenders with sketchy or erratic results, possessing fixed mindsets and egos that prevent them from wanting to truly improve. In contrast, our best clients usually ask, “How can I…?” during every single coaching session. Their openness to learning and willingness to adapt drive their continuous growth and success.

They Are Accountable

The “A” in A Player is for Accountability. Elite Scaling Up clients know that accountability is the cornerstone of high performance.

They declare goals clearly and hold themselves and their teams accountable for achieving them. These clients ensure that everyone reports their results on a weekly scorecard, fostering a culture of transparency and responsibility.

Peer accountability is strong, so the CEO isn’t always the enforcer—team members hold each other accountable. Goals are assigned to specific individuals, because “If everyone is accountable, no one is accountable.” These practitioners understand that having highly accountable leadership is the secret to achieving more.

They Get Results

Successful Scaling Up clients focus relentlessly on achieving tangible, bottom-line results. They understand that A Players deliver these results, while B and C Players offer only excuses.

These clients set and meet ambitious goals, defining success through concrete outcomes that propel their businesses forward. By maintaining a results-oriented mindset, they ensure every strategy and action aligns with their objectives.

This commitment to measurable outcomes leads to sustainable growth and long-term success, showcasing their dedication to making impactful changes and realizing the full potential of the Scaling Up framework.

They Are Tenacious

“Victory belongs to the most tenacious,” proclaimed Roland Garros, the 20th-century aviator and World War I hero after whom the French Open tennis venue is named.

Tenacity rounds out our A Player definition of CART and is perhaps the superpower of top Scaling Up clients. Their CEOs, executives, and employees refuse to lose. These tenacious organizations harness resiliency, resourcefulness, and toughness to persevere when the going gets tough.

For them, failure to achieve a goal is not an option. Their unwavering determination drives them to overcome obstacles and achieve remarkable success.

They Build Playbooks and Systems

Industrial engineer W. Edwards Deming essentially saved and turned around the post-World War II Japanese economy from ruins into a worldwide powerhouse with the mantra, “Winning organizations focus on process and losing organizations focus on people.”

Successful Scaling Up clients know that consistency and scalability come from well-defined playbooks and systems. They invest the time and effort to document their processes, creating playbooks that guide their teams in executing tasks efficiently and effectively.

These playbooks provide the fundamental knowledge on “this is the way we do it here,” which drives strategic valuation when it is time to exit, because the results are scalable and not dependent upon the presence of the founder to be successful. Standardized systems enable them to replicate success across different teams and locations, ensuring quality and reliability.

With playbooks in place, leaders can coach, not manage, their employees, fostering a more autonomous and empowered workforce.

It’s crucial to avoid the “one time at bandcamp” mentality, where executives refer to outdated practices from previous employers, distracting from current strategies. Successful Scaling Up clients hire employees not to bring over what they did before, but because they can run the existing playbooks and use their smarts to improve them.

By building robust playbooks and systems, Scaling Up clients can scale their operations smoothly, reduce errors, and train new employees quickly. This systematic approach allows them to maintain high performance and drive sustainable growth, even as they expand.

They Are Professionals Who Do All Parts of the Job (Amateurs Only Do the Fun Parts)

The contrast between the precise practice and execution of a professional athlete and your average employee, who should be deemed “professionals” because they are getting paid, is stark.

Where average companies don’t sweat the details and fail to check process and execution for accuracy, professional athletes and their coaches obsess over the details, such as what part of the tennis ball they are hitting or the placement and motion of players on a basketball court.

The best Scaling Up clients sweat these details in a similar manner, “defining the definition of done.” They don’t just scratch the surface, completing tasks by only 50% before moving on to something else.

Instead, they ensure thorough completion and then start over and intensely improve it. Just like the great bridges of the world are painted! Only perfect practice makes perfect. This relentless pursuit of excellence and comprehensive engagement in all aspects of their work results in superior outcomes, making their businesses run with the precision and reliability of a finely-tuned Swiss watch.

Let’s Make This happen in Your Business

Does the idea of Scaling Up your business with this elite level of precision appeal to you? As Verne Harnish advises in Scaling Up, “It generally takes two to three years for all the tools, techniques, and habits to become part of the company’s DNA, and another two to three years to truly master the use of them.”

Those who win are constantly looking for better ways to do things and to improve. They don’t sit back and let others pass them by. They use their tools and resources to attack issues and make things happen.”

If you have this mindset, let’s get going and do this important work that can increase the value of your business by several multiples. We have the world’s foremost Scaling Up coaching practice and do the 4 Decisions of People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash better than anyone else. Schedule a conversation with us today. We will show you how we have helped businesses worldwide build their valuations to achieve incredible strategic multiples at exit—and enjoy the ride as they get there!

Rick Crossland is an internationally known expert, approved YPO speaker, and thought leader on A Player talent. A leading certified Scaling Up coach and the author of the acclaimed business book The A Player, Rick’s innovative approach to recruiting, interviewing, validating, and developing high performers—A Players—has been featured in leading business publications such as Inc.com, Entrepreneur.com, Fortune.com, Recruiter.com, Columbus CEO, and Leadership Insights. With clients around the world, his expertise helps businesses scale by building high-performance teams that drive superior results. Follow Rick on LinkedIn and X (Formerly Twitter).